Men, many of us can count ourselves lucky to have friends. How much of a grace is it to count another human being as one of your companions in life? I aim to write on what is called virtuous friendship. This is not to take away value from family members or spousal relationships. However my main focus is to consider what virtuous friendship truly is; what it looks like in theory and in practice. To go in depth, we will tap the intellect of Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas about the subject, thoughts on different kinds of friendship and how they fit in with being a virtuous, Catholic man.>Let us first begin with what Aristotle understood as friendship. The legendary philosopher broke down friendship into three categories; Friendships of Pleasure, Friendships of Utility, and, most importantly Friendships of Virtue. Off the top of your head, you could probably identify and categorize your friends just by these titles alone.>

Friendships of Pleasure

Friends in this category are simply people whose company we enjoy. A good example of friendships of pleasure are your casual “drinking buddies”. Whether this type of friendship hinders or helps us in our life, the relationship itself is predicated on the simple fact that they are fun to be around. It is important to point out that friendships built on pleasure and passion also have shallowness to them. Aristotle claimed that they would not last forever because of this aspect.

Originally published in Catholic Manhood. Read original article